Spanish Abstract: Tradicionalmente, los paises han sancionado el contrabando por el perjuicio que puede ocasionar a su economia, pero tambien como una forma de arbitrarse recursos para su funcionamiento. Colombia ha castigado este comportamiento unas veces como infraccion administrativa, otras como conducta punible y en no pocas ocasiones combinando las dos formas de reaccion punitiva. En el presente articulo se realiza un estudio de la evolucion legislativa para enfrentar este comportamiento en nuestro pais, desde la colonia hasta la reciente Ley 1762 de 2015.English Abstract: States has traditionally sanctioned contraband, due not only to the detriment, it represents for their economies, but also as a manner on which those countries can collect resources for its operation throughout the imposition of fines and the seizing of merchandise. In the case study of the Colombian State, such behavior has been historically approached individually either as an administrative infringement, or as a criminal conduct; and even by combining the two as a punitive reaction. This paper presents a study of legislative evolution, legal approach used by the State of Colombia to face out such conduct, since the colonial times to the lately promulgated law 1765 of 2015.