U.S. authorities in New Mexico arrested two brothers sought by federal agents for 15 years and found enough explosives to launch an attack on par with the Oklahoma City bombing, the U.S. Marshals Service said on Saturday.

Geoffrey Rose, 62, and Gregory Rose, 49, were arrested on Friday at a rented house outside of Datil, New Mexico, a remote town 80 miles from the Arizona border.

"They shared a hatred of the U.S. government. They have a strong dislike for federal workers. They seem to be isolationist and they had in their possession explosives," said Gorden Eden, U.S. marshal for the District of New Mexico.

"The only thing was that was missing here was evidently that they had not sought an opportunity to use explosives against the federal government," Eden said in a phone interview.

U.S. marshals, along with agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and a special weapons team from Albuquerque, raided the house after marshals in Kansas, acting on an informant's tip, notified their New Mexican counterparts of the potential whereabouts of one of the men.

Officials in Kansas issued arrest warrants for the fugitives 15 years ago on charges of drug and firearms possession as well as unlawful storage of explosive materials.

Eden said officers found enough munitions to launch a bombing on the scale of Timothy McVeigh's 1995 attack in Oklahoma City.

"We still don't have an accurate count of how much. The preliminary count is several hundred pounds of explosives," he said.

Federal agents also discovered an indoor marijuana grove, firearms, a military Kevlar helmet and body armor.

Eden said he was unaware of any ties between the Rose brothers and anti-government groups.

The men, who are being held in a prison in the Albuquerque area, will be returned to Kansas to face the outstanding charges, Eden said. They will likely face additional federal charges, he added.