In the present scientific demarche is performed a comparative analysis of smuggling provided by art. 248 PC RM in relation to the regulations of the criminal laws of some foreign states. In some legislations smuggling with limited or forbidden goods in the civil circuit (weapons, ammunitions, narcotics etc.) is criminalized alongside economic smuggling within the Chapter of the Special Part of the Criminal Code dedicated to the protection of the national economy, while in other legislation smuggling with limited or forbidden goods in the civil circuit is placed in other chapters. From all ex-Soviet space only the Republic of Moldova has gone the way of criminalizing the act of non-return of cultural values within the same article, under whose egg is incriminated the economic smuggling and the smuggling with limited or forbidden goods in the civil circuit. In the view of the Moldovan legislature the non-return of cultural values to the customs territory of the Republic of Moldova is a form of smuggling.