LEWISTON – Maine law enforcement officials are appealing to the public through the Internet to track down elusive criminals.

Six weeks ago, the Web site www.mainemostwanted.org was launched with photos, composite sketches and descriptions of charges in hopes of solving crimes and tracking down those responsible.

There are 27 men and one woman on the site, wanted for robbery, drug offenses, probation revocation, theft and other charges. Even James “Whitey” Bulger, the notorious Boston crime figure indicted for 18 counts of murder and tied to another 21 deaths, appears on the site.

The site is sponsored by the Maine Community Policing Institute at the University of Maine at Augusta. It is maintained by the Brunswick Police Department.

Crimes have been posted by local police departments, sheriff’s departments and state police, as well as the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Each picture links to a crime’s details with an investigator’s name and number.

Since the site went up, five people on the site have been identified and six more captured, although not all as a direct result of the listings.

Rick Desjardins, a patrol commander with Brunswick police, said the site reaches a wider audience for a longer period of time than does a suspect’s picture shown just once or twice by the media.

“For us, it really gives us a chance to give the community a better idea of what’s going on,” he said.

Wendy Kierstead, a criminal analyst with the Brunswick Police Department who maintains the site, has received more than 45 e-mail tips from the public so far. One man was identified by his mother.

An Arkansas woman offered up her ex-husband as someone caught on camera shoplifting. She gave his name, address and Social Security number.

Only, it wasn’t him. “We never thought it was,” Kierstead said. “We have to watch for people who have an ax to grind.”

Police departments around the state have been encouraged to add their unsolved felonies.

Nine of the 28 people now posted on the site are from Lewiston and Auburn. They include a man who held up a movie theater and a woman who skipped town after being indicted for stealing $162,000 from an insurance company.

Other cases include a man who walked out of a Portland jewelry store with a $14,000 diamond ring, and another man who offered a woman a ride home from an Ogunquit convenience store and allegedly raped her.

As for the posting of Bulger, Jim Osterreider, supervisory special agent for the FBI in Maine, said there have been lookalike sightings of Bulger in Rangeley and other parts of the state. Osterreider said there’s no proof Bulger has ever been in Maine.

But, he added, “Why not put him on the site? That’s how you catch these people. The more people that know what they look like, the better.”